ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses recent historical scholarship in genocide studies on the entanglements of genocide and colonialism. To describe a workable definition of genocide, it presents a brief critique of two tendencies 'process reduction' and 'concept reduction'. The concept of genocide posited that the crime could in principle be prevented or even eradicated in a future shaped by human intervention, in the name of peace. The most vivid institutional expression of this future-orientation is the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The chapter also distinguishes 'colonialism' in a field of related terms like empire and imperialism and also discusses 'European' colonialism as conceived in postcolonial sociology. Genocidal violence in the colonies was most often strategically employed in the suppression of anti-colonial uprising and insurgency. The chapter finally suggests that genocide prevention and anti-colonialism are to be considered as expressions of modernity.
